At a recent keynote address, I found myself asking attendees if they noticed the one thing that all of the athletes at the winter Olympics had in common, “ A coach.”
It is amazing how many growing companies do not have a support system (formal or informal) in place to support the founders, owners and C-suite. Why is it that we expect ourselves to have all of the answers when world leaders in performance (athletes and businesspeople) regularly have advisors to turn to in the form of individual coaches or formalized boards of advisors or directors.
As Rick Spence asked in his Profit Magazine article, Wanted: Good advisors, Why don’t more entrepreneurs use advisory boards? What does an entrepreneur do when she runs out of ideas? Or when he realizes he needs to be more systematic about gaining new business contacts, more professional about setting strategy or more proactive about seeking out management mentors? One solution is to form a board of advisors—a group of experienced businesspeople with complementary strengths and skills who meet occasionally to discuss the progress of your business and suggest ways you can pull up your socks.
Maybe I was just tired of listening to my own advice but I know that my inclusion of a group of trusted advisors has pushed, prodded, prompted, focused … moved my business in different directions and to new heights.
Remember, business is a team sport.
-Ken Tencer
April 26th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
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May 20th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Ken
Like your piece but would add one dimension in terms on comparing to Olympic Athletes. You can go out there and hire or train with the best coach in any sport (I’ll use swimming as an example), but unless you surround them with other peers it is highly unlikely that a swimmer will be able reach their potential or compete as an Olympic Athlete successfully. A coach is great for coaching on the sidelines – driving technique and motivation. However you need to combine that with other swimmers (peers or better performers) to ensure that your swimmer is constantly being pushed. The same applies to business leadership – a coach is one step but take the additional step in ensuring you maximize your leadership potential by surrounding yourself with others (peers) in a safe environment where you can push each other to achieve the goals and objectives you set out.